''Chelsea Boys'' is an American

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

created by

Glen Hanson Glen Hanson is an openly gay (Adult website) Canadian-born caricaturist and cartoonist, who works primarily in illustration and animation. He is best known as co-creator of the comic strip ''Chelsea Boys'' with Allan Charles Neuwirth. His i ...

and

Allan Charles Neuwirth Allan Charles Neuwirth (born 1956) is an American screenwriter, producer, author, designer, and cartoonist known for his work in film, television, print, and as co-creator of the syndicated comic strip ''Chelsea Boys''. Early life Neuwirth was b ...

, about the lives of three gay male roommates living in New York City's

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

district. The strip first began publication in 1998 in New York's ''

Next Next may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Next'' (1990 film), an animated short about William Shakespeare * ''Next'' (2007 film), a sci-fi film starring Nicolas Cage * '' Next: A Primer on Urban Painting'', a 2005 documentary film Lit ...

'' magazine. Stylistically, the strip is very much "of its time", reflecting the prevailing fashion for heaviness of line and a tendency to angularity. In terms of content and characterization, the strip bears some similarities to a 1970s and 1980s comic strip called ''

Poppers Popper is a slang term given broadly to drugs of the chemical class called alkyl nitrites that are inhaled. Most widely sold products include the original isoamyl nitrite or isopentyl nitrite, and isopropyl nitrite. Isobutyl nitrite is also ...

'', which was drawn by

Jerry Mills Jerry A. Mills (February 26, 1951 - January 28, 1993) was an openly gay cartoonist known for his comic strip ''Poppers'', which is credited as one of the first comic strips to develop multi-dimensional gay characters. Scholars have stated that ...

, though both strips differ artistically.

Characters

*Nathan: a 42-year-old widowed Jewish man. Nathan is portrayed as the "everyman" of the strip, is fairly short, and has a goatee. Though not made explicit, it appears from context that his late partner died of complications from AIDS. He also subsequently dated Steve, who worked in the

World Trade Center World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association. World Trade Center may refer to: Buildings * List of World Trade Centers * World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...

and was killed in the

September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...

. *Soirée: a flamboyant African-American man around 30 years old. Performs as a

drag queen A drag queen is a person, usually male, who uses drag clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate female gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment purposes. Historically, drag queens have usually been gay men, and part o ...

. Soirée was thrown out of his parents' house for being gay when he was a teenager, although he later reconciled with some family members at his father's funeral. Soirée's real name is Delroy Monroe, though his real name is never used by himself or most of the other characters. *Sky: a 22-year-old Canadian art student. Sky, the son of

hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...

parents, grew up on a

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

. He tends toward being extremely optimistic (if slightly naive), and is cartoonishly well-built, resulting in his attracting a lot of attention from others, although he is often unaware of how attractive he is to both men and women; the gang also once walked in on Sky having sex with his lesbian friend and classmate Annie after returning from the

pride parade A pride parade (also known as pride march, pride event, or pride festival) is an outdoor event celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer culture, queer (LGBTQ) social and self-acceptance, achievements, LGBT rights by country o ...

. *Miss Marmelstein: Nathan's pet dog, named after Barbra Streisand's character in the Broadway play ''

I Can Get It for You Wholesale ''I Can Get It for You Wholesale'' is a musical, produced by David Merrick, music and lyrics by Harold Rome, and book by Jerome Weidman, based on his 1937 novel of the same title. It marked the Broadway debut of 19-year-old Barbra Streisand, wh ...

''. *Richard: Nathan's best friend. *Ruben: Richard's boyfriend. *Annie: Sky's friend and classmate. *Kelvin Cohen: a vain clothing designer;

parody A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its subj ...

Calvin Klein Calvin Richard Klein (born November 19, 1942) is an American fashion designer who launched the company that would later become Calvin Klein Inc., in 1968. In addition to clothing, he also has given his name to a range of perfumes, watches, and ...

. He was also a former classmate of Nathan's at

Hebrew school Hebrew school is Jewish education focusing on topics of Jewish history, learning the Hebrew language, and finally learning their Torah Portion, in preparation for the ceremony in Judaism of entering adulthood, known as a Bar or Bat Mitzvah. Hebr ...

. *Chris: Sky's boyfriend. *Curtis: Soirée's boyfriend, a successful lawyer. *Ricki and Lucie: a lesbian couple who live in Nathan, Soirée and Sky's apartment building. Nathan served as a

sperm donor Sperm donation is the provision by a man of his sperm with the intention that it be used in the artificial insemination or other 'fertility treatment' of a woman or women who are not his sexual partners in order that they may become pregnant by hi ...

in one storyline so that the couple could have a child (named Lindsay). *Risa: or Reese for short, Nathan's sister who divorces her husband near the end of the comic strip's run. She has two sons, Jason and Justin.

Distribution

New York's ''

'' magazine is the lead carrier for the strip, which is also syndicated throughout the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain and South Africa. Hanson and Neuwirth signed a deal in 2005 with

Logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wordma ...

to develop a television

animated series An animated series is a set of animated works with a common series title, usually related to one another. These episodes should typically share the same main characters, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series can have either ...

based on the strip, but after several months of development the network declined to move forward, citing budget concerns.

Strip compilations

* ''Chelsea Boys''. published 2003 by

Alyson Books Alyson Books, formerly known as Alyson Publications, was a book publishing house which specialized in LGBT fiction and non-fiction. Former publisher Don Weise described it as "the world's oldest and largest publisher of LGBT literature" and "the ...

. * ''Chelsea Boys Steppin' Out!'', published 2006 by Bruno Gmünder Books.

References

{{reflist

External links

Chelsea Boys' official website via Wayback Machine
1998 comics debuts LGBT-related comic strips American comic strips Comic strips set in the United States LGBT culture in the United States Fictional gay males Gag-a-day comics Comics characters introduced in 1998 1990s LGBT literature LGBT literature in the United States